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renideo

Etymology and origin of the Latin word renideo

History Permalink
Confidence
Uncertain
First attested
Lucretius

Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [rɛˈniː.de.oː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [reˈniː.de.o][1]

Forms

renīdeō (present infinitive renīdēre, perfect active renīduī); second conjugation, no passive, no supine stem[1]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.[2][1] It could be cognate with niteō “to shine”, if the root was *(H)ni(H)- “to shine” with different suffixes, and the TLL derives it from re- and a verb *nīdēre from an adjective *neido-.[2][3] The OLD suggests niteō with influence from rīdeō “to laugh”.[4] Pokorny compared Old Persian naiba- (“beautiful”) and Old Irish nóib (“holy”), which de Vaan calls a mere root comparison.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Lucretius, who says a house need not shine with silver and gleam with gold.[2][4] Köbler dates Lucretius 96–55 BC.[5]

Semantic evolution

It meant to shine, usually with reflected light, to gleam, and to be resplendent with colour or beauty, as Statius' sea and land that shine when the north wind is broken.[4][6] From the gleam of a face it came to mean to smile back, beam, as Catullus' Egnatius who grins everywhere because he has white teeth.[4] Lewis and Short call it poetic and post-Augustan.[7]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius speaks of a house gleaming with gold.[4][5]
  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus mocks Egnatius' constant grin.[4][5]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it.[4][5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To shine, gleam (with reflected light).[4]
  2. To be resplendent.[4]
  3. To smile, beam.[4]

Word family

  • renīdentia
  • renīdescō

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
Cite this entry

“Renideo.” Etymologically, 16 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/renideo. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·